Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid
by Elefant
  • Record Label: Kemado
  • Release Date: Apr 8, 2003
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. Splendid
    80
    Though it isn't the staggering atom bomb that was Turn on the Bright Lights, Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid is intermittently brilliant and wholly accomplished, establishing Elefant as more than a flash in the pan.
  2. Blender
    80
    The music is dramatic with a glammy Britpop insouciance, and Garcia is a refreshingly earnest romantic. [#16, p.117]
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  3. Amazon.com
    80
    If you like the Strokes, you should be spending this week’s CD allowance on Elefant’s first full-length recording.
  5. Mojo
    80
    Diego Garcia has fallen hard for Interpol's diagonal guitar/bass chimes, but his band's debut also suggests The Cure's pop-conscious first album rather than Joy Division. [Jan 2005, p.102]
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  6. Stylus Magazine
    79
    To the casual observer there's really no need to get this album if you already own Is This It or Turn On The Bright Lights.
  7. Rolling Stone
    70
    A great album that sounds like it could have been part of the Eighties British Invasion.
  8. Flak Magazine
    70
    Sunlight doesn't boast great pop songs so much as deliver an unbroken string of good ones.
  9. Drowned In Sound
    70
    While the album is nicely succinct, it lacks a peak, a song to get really excited about.
  10. Pitchfork
    69
    If Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid has that lovable ten-solid-songs consistency, it's less a matter of lacking filler and more a matter of writing a lot of inoffensive but uninspiring tracks that all wander down the same avenues.
  11. PopMatters
    60
    If you can get beyond Garcia's new-wave-icon posturing, Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid is a modestly enjoyable, pleasantly lean-sounding record, the kind of thing that would make you rest on the radio dial as you drive.
  12. AllMusic
    60
    Elefant frontman Diego Garcia must have memorized nearly every song by the Cure while he was growing up, because his band's debut album, Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid, is a shameless, abstract pop mix, a solid indie pop record heavy in new wave aesthetics.
  13. Delusions of Adequacy
    60
    Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid has enough substantive quirks amongst the tiresome new-wave signposts to make this album a reasonable yet flawed artefact that is more than just the sum of its quaint parts.
  14. Q Magazine
    40
    In a world where Interpol already exist, it's hard to get too excited about the twitchy Anglophilia here. [Dec 2004, p.136]
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.4

Universal acclaim- based on 23 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 23
  3. Negative: 2 out of 23
  1. MusicMaven
    Dec 28, 2005
    7
    Elefant bring a light touch to their well-crafted, anglo-80's revivalist songs. The rhythm section maintains a solid backbeat while the Elefant bring a light touch to their well-crafted, anglo-80's revivalist songs. The rhythm section maintains a solid backbeat while the guitar arpeggios ebb and flow. The synths provide twinkling countermelodies while frontman Diego Garcia croons his lovelorn lyrics. It's a tasteful job for sure, but it can get too mannered and emotionless at times.… Full Review »
  2. mercili
    Jun 19, 2005
    10
    splendid
  3. alisonb
    Mar 2, 2005
    10
    love them and love the cd!!!
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